New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the crucial Finance Bill 2018 and a Rs 89.25 lakh crore spending plan for the next fiscal year without discussion amid ruckus through voice vote, which led to the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament for the eighth day running.
The Finance Bill as well as the Appropriation Bill were passed in a matter of 25 minutes even as vociferous members from TDP, AIADMK, SP and the RJD stood in the well of the house and shouted slogans over a slew of issues.
Holding placards and shouting slogans, MPs from TDP and YRS Congress sought special assistance for Andhra Pradesh, AIADMK members were seeking setting up of the Cauvery river tribunal. The MPs from the Congress, Left and SP were seen shouting slogans over the manner in which the finance and appropriation bills were being passed.
The Lower House was adjourned for the day immediately thereafter. The Opposition parties protested against the passage of the budget without debate, as the session is slated to continue till April 6.
The Rajya Sabha, which was informed of the passage of the budget by the Lok Sabha at 2 PM, was also adjourned for the day within about three minutes thereafter.
In the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved 21 amendments to the Bill containing taxation proposals for 2018-19, which were approved by voice vote. So was the Appropriation Bill which detailed spending plans for 99 government ministries and departments.
With this, the parliamentary approval for the Modi government’s fifth and final budget was completed in the Lok Sabha, where the ruling BJP-led NDA enjoys absolute majority. Earlier this week, the BJP had issued a three-day whip to its members to be present in the House.
As slogan-shouting began soon after the House assembled, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan accepted Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar’s proposal for advancing the time of the passage of the Finance and other bills, scheduled in the agenda at 5 pm, to noon. Thereafter, she adjourned the House till 12 PM as members of the opposition and TDP and AIADMK raised slogans on various issues, including against the passage of the budget without debate, the Rs 12,700 crore banking scam, special status to Andhra Pradesh among others.and setting up of Cauvery Management Board for river water sharing by riparian states.
Neither the Lok Sabha, nor the Rajya Sabha have transacted any substantial business in the past eight days since the second leg of the budget session began on March 5.
After passage of the finance and appropriation bills in the Lok Sabha, both these legislations have to go to Rajya Sabha for passage.
However, since these are money bills, they would be considered approved, if the Upper House does not return them to the Lower House within 14 days.
The Opposition has an upper hand in the Rajya Sabha. The proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were also washed out for the eighth straight day today, amid uproar by the opposition and NDA partner TDP over the same issues.
The House was adjourned till 2 PM soon after it had assembled for the day. The Chair called it a day after it reassembled at 2 PM as uproarious scenes continued.
When the Upper House met at 2 PM, the opposition members trooped into the Well raising slogans like “BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao” (remove BJP, save the country) and displaying placards.
As the noisy protests continued, Kurien thereafter adjourned the House for the day.
Three of the SP members in the House - R S Tiwari, Chandrapal Singh Yadav and Neeraj Shekhar donned red caps as counting trends in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypolls showed their party candidates leading in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s constitutency
